Dehumidification apparatus, and air conditioning apparatus and air conditioning system having the same

ABSTRACT

Disclosed are a dehumidification apparatus, and an air conditioning apparatus and system having the same. The dehumidification apparatus includes: a desiccant rotor having a desiccant for adsorbing moisture; and a regeneration unit disposed at one side of the desiccant rotor, for desorbing the moisture adsorbed to the desiccant. The regeneration unit includes at least one of a hollow hot water line containing hot water exchanging heat with the air flowing toward the desiccant rotor. The dehumidification apparatus efficiently reproduces the desiccant for dehumidification and air conditioning.

RELATED APPLICATION

This application is a divisional application of U.S. Patent ApplicationNo. 11/743,109 filed on May 1, 2007 and claims the benefit under 35U.S.C. §119(a) of Korean Patent Application No. 10-2006-0098151 filed onOct. 9, 2006, in the Korean Intellectual Property Office, the entiredisclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference for allpurposes.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to air conditioning, and moreparticularly, to a dehumidification apparatus for removing moisture fromthe air and lowering a temperature of the air, and an air conditioningapparatus and system having the same.

2. Description of the Background Art

Air conditioning is to keep temperature, humidity, air stream, bacteria,dust and harmful gas in the best conditions for persons or objectsindoors. The representative air conditioning functions include coolingand heating relating to temperature control, and dehumidification andhumidification relating to humidity control.

In addition to electricity generation, the cogeneration supplies heat todistrict heating or industrial processing by using the waste heat fromthe electricity generation process.

FIG. 1 is a concept view illustrating a heating process of houses bycogeneration.

Waste heat discarded from the process of electricity generation of acogeneration plant 10 is stored in a thermal storage tank 11, andtransferred to a liquid (water) flowing in a heat transfer line 14through a heat exchanger 12 by a circulation pump 13. The resulting hotwater is transferred to a cooling/heating system 20 of the houses.

A heat exchanger 21 of the cooling/heating system 20 exchanges heatbetween the hot water and the water circulating in a hot water circuit22. Then, the hot water is supplied to the houses in response to demandin the houses.

Since the production ratio of power to heat is fixed to about 3:4, it isadvantageous if the ratio of demands for power and heat is close to theproduction ratio. However, the demands for power and heat fromcommercial or residential sectors show very different patterns from eachother in annual variation.

The demand for power has a maximum value in summer with a relativelysmall annual fluctuation, while the demand for heat has a largefluctuation with a maximum value in winter. According to a statisticalreview, the ratio of the minimum to the maximum in the annual heatdemand is only 8.7% in middle and high latitude regions.

FIG. 2 is an instance showing monthly heat/electricity supply from adistrict heating corporation.

As shown in FIG. 2, according to the demand for heat, the heat supply N2from the district heating corporation has a minimum value from June toSeptember, namely, a hot season. A particular point in the graph is thatthe electricity supply N1 becomes almost zero in the summer regardlessof the increasing demand in the electricity in the summer. This isbecause the cogeneration stops in the summer and the small heat demandis sufficed by a dedicated boiler for heat supply. The reason for thisis that the operation of the cogeneration is economically efficient andenergy efficient as well only when the demand ratio between electricityand heat matches well with the production ratio, as mentionedpreviously. When the demand ratio deviates much from the productionratio, the operation of cogeneration becomes economically inefficientand the cogeneration process needs to be stopped.

As described above, the efficient operation of the cogeneration plantcannot be ensured in summer without increasing the demand for the wasteheat generated as a byproduct from the electricity generation.

As shown in FIG. 1, in order to increase the demand for heat in summer,the district cooling has been devised applying an absorption typechiller 23 using the district heat as the heat source. However, theabsorption type chiller 23 has a drawback in that the coolingperformance of the chiller decreases considerably with a low temperatureheat source such as the waste heat from the cogeneration plant 10. Inaddition, the cold water circuit 24 connected to the absorption typechiller 23 must be installed separately from the hot water circuit 22.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a desiccantcooling system using hot water as the heat source for the regenerationof the desiccant.

Another object of the present invention is to perform air conditioningincluding cooling and dehumidification.

To achieve these and other advantages and in accordance with the purposeof the present invention, as embodied and broadly described herein,there is provided a dehumidification apparatus, including: a desiccantrotor having a desiccant for adsorbing moisture; and a regeneration unitdisposed at one side of the desiccant rotor, for desorbing the moistureadsorbed to the desiccant, wherein the regeneration unit comprises atleast one of a hot water tube containing hot water exchanging heat withthe air flowing toward the desiccant rotor.

According to the second embodiment of the present invention, there isprovided an air conditioning apparatus, including: a casing enclosingfirst and second channels separated by a partition wall; a desiccantrotor rotatably installed across the partition wall to be placedcrossing the channels, for adsorbing moisture from an air flowing intothe first channel; and a regeneration unit configured to desorb themoisture adsorbed to the desiccant rotor, by heating an air flowing intothe second channel toward the desiccant rotor.

According to the third embodiment of the present invention, there isprovided an air conditioning apparatus, including, a first hollow casinghaving its inlet and outlet opened to be in communication with theoutdoor air; a second hollow casing disposed in the first casing, forpartitioning off the first casing into first and second channels incommunication with each other; a partition wall formed in the secondcasing, for partitioning off the second casing into third and fourthchannels in communication with each other; a desiccant rotor rotatablyinstalled in the second casing to be placed crossing the adjacent firstand fourth channels, for adsorbing moisture from an air flowing into thefirst channel; a regeneration unit disposed in the fourth channel, fordesorbing the moisture adsorbed to the desiccant rotor, by heating anair flowing into the fourth channel; and a heat exchanger placedcrossing the adjacent second and third channels, for exchanging heatbetween an air flowing in the second channel and the air flowing intothe third channel through the desiccant rotor.

According to the fourth embodiment of the present invention, there isprovided an air conditioning system, including, a dehumidificationsystem having a desiccant for adsorbing moisture; and a hot water supplysystem in communication with the dehumidification system, for supplyinghot water, and also supplying heat for regenerating the desiccant of thedehumidification system.

The foregoing and other objects, features, aspects and advantages of thepresent invention will become more apparent from the following detaileddescription of the present invention when taken in conjunction with theaccompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The accompanying drawings, which are included to provide a furtherunderstanding of the invention and are incorporated in and constitute apart of this specification, illustrate embodiments of the invention andtogether with the description serve to explain the principles of theinvention.

In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a concept view illustrating a heating process of houses bycogeneration;

FIG. 2 is a graph showing monthly heat/electricity supply of a districtheating corporation;

FIG. 3 is a concept view illustrating a dehumidification apparatus inaccordance with one preferred embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 4 is a concept view illustrating an air conditioning apparatus inaccordance with another preferred embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 5 is a concept view illustrating an air conditioning apparatus inaccordance with yet another preferred embodiment of the presentinvention; and

FIG. 6 is a concept view illustrating a cooling process of houses byusing the district heat supply.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Reference will now be made in detail to the preferred embodiments of thepresent invention, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanyingdrawings.

FIG. 3 is a concept view illustrating a dehumidification apparatus inaccordance with one preferred embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 3, the dehumidification apparatus 100 includes adesiccant rotor 110 and a regeneration unit 120.

The desiccant rotor 110 is normally formed in a cylindrical shape filledwith a honeycomb structure, so that the air can pass through channelsdefined by the honeycomb structure. A desiccant (not shown) such assilica gel, zeolite or LiCI is coated on the walls defining the airpaths through the desiccant rotor 110. The desiccant adsorbs moisturefrom the air passing through the desiccant rotor 110. The desiccantrotor 110 is mounted on a structure (not shown) to be rotated around arotation shaft 111 at its center.

The regeneration unit 120 is disposed at one side of the desiccant rotor110, for heating the air flowing toward the desiccant rotor 110. Hotwater is supplied to the regeneration unit 120 to provide thermal energyto heat the air. Accordingly, the regeneration unit 120 becomes at leastone of a hot water air heater. The hot water supplied to theregeneration unit can be from a district energy facility such as acogeneration plant 500 (refer to FIG. 6), or a water heater for heating(not shown) such as a boiler.

Moreover, in order to prevent mixing of the air flows F1 and F2 flowinginto first and second regions A1 and A2 of the desiccant rotor 110,respectively, a partition wall (not shown) can be installed on aimaginary line 112 dividing the first and second regions A1 and A2.

The operation of the dehumidification apparatus 100 in accordance withthe present invention will now be described.

The air flow F1 flowing into the first region A1 of the desiccant rotor110 passes through the desiccant rotor 110 through a channel formed bythe honeycomb structure of the desiccant rotor 110. In this process, thedesiccant coated on the desiccant rotor 110 adsorbs moisture from theair flow F1. Therefore, the air flow F1′ is dehumidified and driedthrough the desiccant rotor 110. On the other hand, the first region A1of the desiccant rotor 110 has high moisture uptake due to the moistureadsorption.

The air flow F2 passing through the regeneration unit 120 is heated tothe regeneration temperature by the hot water flowing in theregeneration unit 120. This air flow F2 at the regeneration temperatureflows into the second region A2 of the desiccant rotor 110.

Since the desiccant rotor 110 rotates around the rotation shaft 111, thepart of the desiccant rotor 110 with high moisture uptake previouslyoccupied the first region A1 turns to the second region A2. Then themoisture is desorbed by the air flow F2 having the raised temperature.As a result, the air flow F2′ which has passed through the second regionA2 has high humidity.

As the moisture is desorbed by the air flow F2, the second region A2 isdried again, which is called regeneration of the desiccant rotor 110.The regenerated part of the desiccant rotor 110 at the second region A2turns to the first region A1 as the desiccant rotor 110 rotates.Accordingly, at the first region A1 the moisture is removed from the airflow F1 continuously.

In the above dehumidifying process, the air flow F2 supplied to thedesiccant rotor 110 directly contacts the desiccant rotor 110 andtransfers heat, thereby improving transfer efficiency. Even if thetemperature of the regeneration heat source (hot water) is low, thedesiccant rotor 110 is efficiently regenerated to attain a sufficientdehumidification effect.

FIG. 4 is a concept view illustrating an air conditioning apparatus inaccordance with another preferred embodiment of the present invention.

As illustrated in FIG. 4, the air conditioning apparatus 200 includes acasing 210, a desiccant rotor 220 and a regeneration unit 230.

The casing 210 encloses two channels, i.e., the first and the secondchannels 211 and 212. The first and second channels 211 and 212 aredivided by a partition wall 213 disposed inside the casing 210. Bothends of the first and second channels 211 and 212 are opened, so thatthe air can flow through the first and second channels 211 and 212,respectively.

The desiccant rotor 220 and the regeneration unit 230 correspond to thedesiccant rotor 110 and the regeneration unit 120, respectively,mentioned above. Detailed explanations thereof are omitted.

The desiccant rotor 220 is installed across the partition wall 213 to beplaced crossing the first and second channels 211 and 212. Theregeneration unit 230 is disposed inside the second channel 230. Asmentioned above, the regeneration unit 230 is a hot water air heatersupplied with hot water from the district energy facility or the waterheater for space heating.

To facilitate the air flows passing through the first and secondchannels 211 and 212, first and second fans 241 and 242 can beadditionally disposed in the first and second channels 211 and 212,respectively.

When the air flow which has passed through the first channel 211 issupplied to an indoor space intended to be air-conditioned, the air flowpassing through the second channel 212 must be taken from an outdoorspace and discharged back to the outdoor space. For this, extensionductwork 260 for connecting the second channel 212 to the outdoor spaceis provided with at both ends of the second channel 212.

To supply the low temperature and low humidity air into the indoorspace, a cooling unit 250 is added to the dehumidification apparatus.

For example, a sensible heat rotor 251 can be used as the cooling unit250. The sensible heat rotor 251 is made of heat absorbing materialhaving high thermal capacity, so that the air flows flowing in the firstand second channels 211 and 212 can exchange heat via the sensible heatrotor 251. The air in the first channel 211 flowing out of the desiccantrotor 220, which is increased in temperature due to the heat releasefrom the moisture sorption process through the desiccant rotor 220, iscooled transferring heat to the sensible heat rotor 251. Then, theheated part of the heat rotor 251 rotates into the second channel 211 torelease heat to the air flowing from outdoors. For this, identically tothe desiccant rotor 220, the sensible heat rotor 251 is installed acrossthe partition wall 213, and rotates over the first and second channels211 and 212.

For further cooling, a cooling coil 252 can be installed in the firstchannel 211 at the outlet of the sensible heat rotor 251. The coolingcoil 252 additionally cools the air which has passed through thesensible heat rotor 251 by refrigerants or chilled water.

FIG. 5 is a concept view illustrating an air conditioning apparatus inaccordance with yet another preferred embodiment of the presentinvention.

As shown in FIG. 5, the air conditioning apparatus 300 includes a firstcasing 310, a second casing 320, a partition wall 330, a desiccant rotor340 and a regeneration unit 350.

The first casing 310 is a hollow body with its inlet 311′ and outlet311″ opened at both ends. The inside space of the first casing 310 isdivided into a first channel 311 and a second channel 312 by the secondcasing 320 disposed inside the first casing 310.

The second casing 320 is a blocked hollow body. The partition wall 330is disposed inside the second casing 320. The partition wall 330partitions off the inside space of the second casing 320 into third andfourth channels 321 and 322 in communication with each other.

The desiccant rotor 340 and the regeneration unit 350 correspond to thedesiccant rotor 220 and the regeneration unit 230 explained above.Therefore, detailed explanations thereof are omitted.

As shown in FIG. 5, the air conditioning apparatus 300 includes acondensing unit 360 in addition to the second embodiment shown in FIG.4. The condensing unit 360 condenses the moisture from the air flowingout of the desiccant rotor in the fourth or regeneration channel 322.The air flowing out of the condensing unit 360 is decreased in thehumidity due to the moisture condensation and is redirected to theregeneration channel 322 of the desiccant rotor 340. With thisembodiment, the regeneration air can be recycled to make theregeneration air channel in a closed circuit and the desorbed moisturefrom the regeneration of the desiccant rotor 340 is removed in the formof condensed liquid water by the condensing unit 360. the condensedliquid water is collected in a water tank 390 which is detachablymounted on the second casing 320.

The condensing unit 360 is a sort of heat exchanger for exchanging heatbetween the hot humid air from the regeneration side of the desiccantrotor and the relatively cool air branching from the return air streamthrough an independent air channel 312. The hot humid air from theregeneration side is cooled by the relatively cold return air resultingin the moisture condensation. Consequently, the desorbed moisture fromthe desiccant rotor in the regeneration side is removed from theregeneration air at the condensing unit 360.

A cooling unit 380 for cooling the air dehumidified by the desiccantrotor 340 corresponds to the cooling unit 250 described above. Thedehumidified air from the desiccant rotor 340 is finally cooled by thecooling unit 380 and is supplied to an indoor space intended to beair-conditioned. Fans 371 and 372 for facilitating air flows in thecasings 310 and 320 correspond to the fans 241 and 242 described above.

Differently from the air conditioning apparatus 200, the airconditioning apparatus 300 recycles the air in the second casing orregeneration circuit 320, and thus does not need to induce the outdoorair. When the air conditioning apparatus 300 is disposed indoors, theindoor air is taken through the inlet 311′ and discharged to the indoorspace through the outlet 311″. That is, induction of the outdoor air isnot required. As a result, holes are not bored through an outer wall ofa building in the installation of the air conditioning apparatus 300. Inaddition, as compared with the air conditioning apparatus 200, the airconditioning apparatus 300 does not require the extension channel orductwork 260. Accordingly, the air conditioning apparatus 300 can beeasily installed and disassembled.

FIG. 6 is a concept view illustrating an air conditioning system usingthe district heat supply.

Referring to FIG. 6, the air conditioning system includes adehumidification system 400 and a district heat supply system 500.

The dehumidification system 400 is composed of a dehumidification or airconditioning apparatus 410, a hot water circuit 420 and a heat exchanger430.

The dehumidification or air conditioning apparatus 410 installed inindoor space (house, workroom, etc.) is one of the dehumidificationapparatus 100 and the air conditioning apparatuses 200 and 300 forsupplying the dehumidified (and cooled) air to the space requiringair-conditioning. Such apparatuses 100, 200 and 300 have been describedabove.

The dehumidification or air conditioning apparatus 410 is connected tothe hot water circuit 420 to be supplied with the regeneration heat forthe desiccant rotor 110, 220 or 340. The heat exchanger 430 transfersheat from the district heat supply system 500 to the hot water circuit420.

The district heat supply system 500 is a central energy facility such asa cogeneration plant. The cogeneration plant 500 stores waste heatgenerated by electricity generation in a thermal storage tank 510. Aheat exchanger 520 performs heat exchange with water. The water suppliedwith heat moves along a heat transfer line 540 connected to the heatexchanger 430 by a circulation pump 530.

By this configuration, the waste heat can be supplied from the districtheat supply system 500 to each space requiring air-conditioning, andused to dehumidify and cool the air. With this increased heat demand tosupply air-conditioning in the summer, it is possible to operate thecogeneration plant 500 even in the summer which has not been normallymanaged due to large decrease in the heat demand in summer.

Another advantage of the present invention is that any additionalinstallation of the water lines is not required for the embodiment ofthe present invention except the original hot water circuit for heating.It is thus possible to efficiently economically use the waste heat forair conditioning.

As the present invention may be embodied in several forms withoutdeparting from the spirit or essential characteristics thereof, itshould also be understood that the above-described embodiments are notlimited by any of the details of the foregoing description, unlessotherwise specified, but rather should be construed broadly within itsspirit and scope as defined in the appended claims, and therefore allchanges and modifications that fall within the metes and bounds of theclaims, or equivalents of such metes and bounds are therefore intendedto be embraced by the appended claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. An air conditioning system, comprising: adehumidification system having a desiccant for adsorbing moisture; and aheated water supply system in communication with the dehumidificationsystem to provide heated water and to provide heat for regenerating thedesiccant using the heated water.
 2. The air conditioning system asclaimed in claim 1, wherein: the dehumidification system furthercomprises a regeneration unit to raise a temperature of air flowingtoward the desiccant, and the regeneration unit comprises at least onechannel in communication with the heated water supply system.
 3. The airconditioning system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the heated watersupply system comprises a district facility providing the heated waterfrom waste heat generated by generating electricity.
 4. The airconditioning system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the heated watersupply system comprises a water heater to heat water.
 5. The airconditioning system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the dehumidificationsystem further comprises a cooling unit to cool the air dried by thedesiccant.
 6. A system for conditioning air of one or morecommercial/residence spaces, the system comprising: a generating unit toprovide heated water; and a circulation pump to circulate the heatedwater and connected to a heated water circuit, wherein the heated watercircuit is connected to the one or more commercial/residence spaces andprovides the heated water or water heated by the heated water toexchange heat with air to dehumidify air of the one or morecommercial/residence spaces.
 7. The system as claimed in claim 6,further comprising a dehumidification unit in communication with theheated water circuit and provided to the one or morecommercial/residence spaces to absorb moisture from the air of the oneor more commercial/residence spaces and desorb the moisture by using airhaving heat exchanged with the heated water or the water heated by theheated water.
 8. The system as claimed in claim 6, further comprising: aheat transfer line provided between the circulation pump and the heatedwater circuit; and a heat exchanger provide between the heat transferline and the heated water circuit to transfer heat from the heated waterto water of the heated water circuit.
 9. The system as claimed in claim6, further comprising a heat exchanger to transfer heat generated by thegenerating unit to water to provide the heated water.
 10. A method forconditioning air of one or more commercial/residence spaces, the methodcomprising: generating heated water by a district facility; andproviding the heated water by the district facility to a heated watercircuit connected to the one or more commercial/residence spaces toexchange heat with air to dehumidify air of the one or morecommercial/residence spaces, wherein the heated water circuit providesthe heated water or water heated by the heated water to adehumidification unit provided to the one or more commercial/residencespaces, and the dehumidification unit absorbs moisture from air using adesiccant and desorbs the moisture by using air having heat exchangedwith the heated water or the water heated by the heated water.